Us Senate & House

Competing job plans at best hypothetical More about philosophy than reality BY PAUL HUGHES REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

MERIDEN — U.S. Senate candidates Christopher Murphy and Linda McMahon often sound like all they have to do to fulfill their campaign plans is to get elected.

Yet realistically, neither candidate is likely to have that kind of political pull as a fresh-faced newcomer in the 100-member Senate, where seniority translates into clout.

Murphy conceded as much Monday while he campaigned at Jonal Laboratories in Meriden, a small, family-owned aerospace company.

Cutting through the campaign bluster, all the plans and promises are meant to let voters know more about the candidates, invite comparisons and create impressions.

At Jonal Labs, Murphy tried to draw contrasts between the jobs plans that he and McMahon are proposing.

"Neither Linda McMahon nor I are going to be able to pass our jobs plan word for word, but it shows your values and it shows who you fight for," Murphy told reporters.

He used the Jonal Labs stop to resume highlighting his plans to beef up the "Buy American" law. It requires the federal government to give preference to U.S.-made products.

Defense work from the government accounts for nearly a quarter of Jonal Lab's business, and some of the company's biggest competitors include defense contractors in Europe.

"We need a viable manufacturing base to maintain our defense capabilities," said Mark Nemeth, president of Jonal Labs and a Murphy supporter.

Murphy told Jonal workers and executives that closing loopholes in the decades-old Buy American law would create as many as 600,000 manufacturing jobs at no additional cost to the taxpayers.

"I am leading the fight in Washington to stand up for the simple premise that our taxpayer dollars should be used to buy things here in the United States rather than overseas," he said.

Yet, the Democratic congressman cannot point voters to any legislation he has sponsored that Congress has passed during his three U.S. House terms, a fact that his Republican opponent's campaign highlighted Monday.

The McMahon campaign once again pointed out that Murphy voted against defense appropriation bills that included Buy American amendments in May and July.

It noted that Murphy had issued a press release that trumpeted the passage of the amendment in May, but neglected to mention that he had voted against the final bill.

Corry Bliss, McMahon's campaign manager, said the votes show Murphy's support of Buy American legislation is just campaign rhetoric and that he is a hypocrite.

Murphy said he is a Democrat in a Republican-controlled House, and this means that he often votes against Republican legislation that includes Democratic amendments.

He also came to Jonal Labs to slam McMahon's job plans as unoriginal.

He started leveling criticism late last week that McMahon had copied much of her six-point economic plan from other plans that Republicans and conservative groups in Washington have put out.

The McMahon plan proposes to cut income and corporate taxes, eliminate the estate tax, and index taxes on capital gains to inflation. It would also end corporate tax credits except for charitable deductions and business subsidies.

Murphy acknowledged to reporters that his jobs plan is not entirely his work, either.

"I think very few of a candidate's ideas are going to be completely original, but it is one thing to draw on a particular source for inspiration. It is another to just simply copy and paste word by word someone else's ideas," Murphy said.

The McMahon campaign has been telling voters that Murphy does not have a job plan because he described the five-point initiative that he unveiled in June as a work in progress.

A Jonal worker asked Murphy about the charge. "If that's true, that is probably not good for you at this point," the man said.

Murphy said the accusation is not true. He sought to turn the charge back on McMahon, saying that he bases his jobs initiatives on what he learns from Connecticut businesses, workers and job seekers.

"If Linda McMahon is saying that she is never going to listen to the people of this state, that she is never going to accept a new good idea and bring it to Washington, then I think that is a really backwards way to approach your job as a United States senator," Murphy said.

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